The need for speed leads to better angioplasty results

University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland is mentioned prominently in this Wall Street Journal story about hospitals' efforts to reduce “door to balloon” time for patients receiving angioplasty.

The procedure for heart attack patients involves the insertion of a catheter with a small balloon at the tip that is inflated to open a blocked artery. There is “growing evidence to show that every minute” hospitals can save in starting the procedure “lowers a patient's risk of death and serious damage to the heart muscle,” The Journal reports.

Guidelines developed over the past decade “call for hospitals to meet a 90-minute or less time standard for treatment with angioplasty, starting from the moment a patient enters the hospital until the balloon is inflated and blood flow is restored,” according to the newspaper.

The Journal says UH Case Medical Center in 2010 “began a door-to-balloon improvement project at its Harrington Heart and Vascular Institute after finding it was missing the under-90 minute mark too often.”

Its heart institute “donated a wireless transmission system and training worth more than $50,000 to a large EMS systems it works with, to equip more ambulances with portable machines to send ECG results ahead of arrival,” according to The Journal. “The hospital set minute-by-minute goals for individual team members and continues to provide feedback on how well they do for each patient.”

The medical center “now meets the 90 minute-and-under standard 100% of the time, compared with less than 60% at one point in 2010,” the newspaper reports. “Median door-to-balloon time is 47 minutes for patients arriving at the ER on foot or by ambulance,” according to the institute's director, Daniel Simon.

It's often faster than that.

One patient's balloon “was inflated in her artery within 19 minutes of her arrival, enabling doctors to remove the clot and insert two stents to hold the artery open,” The Journal says. “Total door-to-balloon time: 35 minutes.”

Our sister publication, Crain's Detroit Business reports that brokers in the Motor City say that Mr. Gilbert's Bedrock Management has the 332,000-square-foot One Woodward Ave. building under contract to be sold.

Quicken Loans officials wouldn't confirm the story.

“While a closing date isn't known, brokers estimate that the building could sell for $4 million to $6 million,” Crain's Detroit says.

They don't like the climate: Business leaders aren't fond of Ohio's lawsuit climate, according to this story from the Dayton Business Journal.

The paper says Ohio's lawsuit climate ranked No. 30 of the 50 states in a new national survey by the U.S. Chamber Institute for legal reform.

Respondents to the survey — general counsels and senior attorneys or leaders in companies with annual revenues of at least $100 million — “were asked to rank states for their overall treatment of tort, contract, and class action litigation,” the newspaper says. “Among other elements, respondents also ranked states for the impartiality and competence of their judges and the fairness of their juries.”

Ohio “got dinged in several areas such as timeliness of summary judgment or dismissal, scientific and technical evidence and having and enforcing meaningful venue requirements,” according to the story.

The most business-friendly lawsuit climate is in Delaware, the survey found, followed by Nebraska, Wyoming, Minnesota and Kansas. West Virginia had the worst lawsuit climate in the country.

Hot in the city (and across the state): Congratulations! You survived a summer in one of the states that got the worst of this year's heat.

ClimateCentral.org compiles a list of states most affected by record-breaking heat this summer. The top-10 list was based on two factors:

Which states broke or tied the most high-temperature records (after accounting for the number of stations in each state, and the expected number of records based on the age of the stations); and

Which states had the largest disparities in the ratio between record high and record-low temperatures.

An interactive map assembled by ClimateCentral.org shows the top 10 states with the biggest difference between the number of high-temperature and low-temperature records. Ohio, the website notes, “has thus far seen 49 high-temperature records set for every one low-temperature record” in 2012. Maryland and Wisconsin have both seen about 41 record highs for every one record low.

Things can only get better: It's much too early to give up on the Browns this season, but this is not a good sign,

The Wall Street Journal notes that Browns quarterback Brandon Weeden's 5.1 passer rating is the worst ever recorded for a Week 1 rookie starter, according to Pro Football Reference.

But it's just one week, right? Well …

“Each of the prior 10 teams that opened with the lowest-rated rookie quarterback struggled to score all year, with seven eventually finishing last or next to last in points per game,” The Journal reports.